Goodfellow Ashmore celebrates 75 years

Published 2:16 am, Tuesday, September 1, 2009

A Danbury-based real estate firm has been through its share of hard economic times, having hung its shingle on West Street during the 1930s Depression.

Goodfellow Ashmore Realty LLC, which opened on the day before Independence Day in 1934, two weeks ago celebrated its 75th anniversary, having moved during the years from West Street to Main Street to Mill Plain Road to its current location at 2 Ives St.

"We formed the company on July 3 so we could take the next day off," Robert Goodfellow, the company's co-founder, said at a celebration at Danbury's LaFortuna restaurant.

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Goodfellow, 96, began the firm as a residential real estate and insurance company with Harry Ashmore, who died last year.

Goodfellow, who ran the real estate side of the business, became instrumental in bringing several companies into the Danbury area after World War II, such as Barden Precision Ball Bearings; Davis &amp; Geck, a surgical instrument company that became part of Covidien Inc.; and publishing firm Grolier International Inc., said Todd Payne, Goodfellow Ashmore's president and Goodfellow's grandson.

"My grandfather was responsible for bringing a lot of commercial tenants here," he said.

Goodfellow's early success in commercial real estate, which includes finding Commerce Park's first tenants, was facilitated by space opening up in former munitions factories after the war, Payne said.

"That's when the real push for commercial real estate happened," he said.

Despite Goodfellow retiring in 1989, the firm's success in commercial real estate continued because of the city's rapid commercial growth, which included the opening of the Danbury Fair Mall, said Payne, who took over in 1987.

"The way I've been able to keep it going is through good people," he said.

Goodfellow Ashmore, which managed about 6,000 residential properties in the 1990s, returned to residential sales in 2000 by teaming up with ERA Real

Estate.

"It's been a tough market, but we've become a safe haven for a lot of agents," said Scott Cooney, president of ERA Goodfellow Homes, which has grown to 42 agents and become the second-largest ERA office in Connecticut.

Well-established and respected commercial real estate firms such as Goodfellow Ashmore, which manages a real estate portfolio valued at more than $2 billion, play a vital role in developing the city's economic well-being and future, said Stephen Bull, president of the Danbury Chamber of Commerce.

"These are the guys working hard in the trenches to get the deals," he said. "Without them, Danbury would be a much different place."